


The Siren

by Mazen



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
Genre: Abuse, F/M, MerMay, Obsession, Rating May Change, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2020-03-30 23:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19037422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazen/pseuds/Mazen
Summary: When Erik hears a mermaid's song, he knows that he must have her. No matter the cost.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I barely made it before MerMay ended! Because I apparently have plenty of stories in my mind to write when I'm stuck with my dissertation. 
> 
> Warning: This may seem fluffy, but it will turn dark.

The first night he heard her, was nine days after he had just barely managed to escape the Shah and the sadistic Khanum. He was sitting on the deck in the moonlight, enjoying the fresh air and the dark sea in peace. Night time was the only time he could leave the confines of the crate he was hiding in during the day. No one came into the storage room which only held crates of spices, various nuts and gunpowder. Though the Daroga had promised that the men on the ship were reliable, Erik knew that the Shah had spies everywhere.

At first he thought that he had died and that an angel had come to claim him. He was dehydrated and hadn't eaten nor slept for days, so death wasn't unlikely. But he quickly dismissed the idea of an angel coming for him. He didn't truly believe in God, along with heaven and hell, and if he did, he knew that he would never gain entrance to heaven.

Then he realized that he must've gone mad. Somehow that calmed him. He could handle that, especially if it granted him the pleasure of hearing such a voice. He lay on the deck and listened for hours to the rise and fall of solemn melodies floating through the night air. He couldn't understand the words, though it was clear to him that it was a language, but it didn't matter. The pain and loneliness expressed in the songs mirrored his own.

After an hour or so he noticed that the voice was getting farther away. Or more precisely: The ship he was on was sailing away from the source. Despite his conviction that his mind had imagined the voice, he couldn't handle the thought of never hearing it again. 

He ran to the bridge and after a brief moment of understanding the steering gear, he turned the ship around to sail back towards the voice. When he was sure that he was as close to it as before, he memorized the coordinates and turned off the engines. But it wouldn't be enough. He ventured into the steam engine room and disconnected every piston rod. It would be too easy for the sailors to reconnect them, so he hid all the screws he could find on board. 

Finally he could head back to the deck. Sadly the night had grown late and he saw the first signs of sunlight in the East. The voice silenced without finishing the song. It frustrated Erik to no end when something was left incomplete and his voice filled the vast ocean around him to end the song as it felt right. 

Suddenly he heard a loud splash to starboard. He ran over and looked over the railing for a sign of what made the noise. It was dark, but his eyes were used to it and he saw everything almost as clearly as in sunlight. It was there he saw her: A young woman in the large waves, staring up at him. Her naked upper body were covered by wet golden, curly locks. Her face was round, her nose like a button and her eyes the clearest blue he had ever seen. 

She gasped as their eyes locked for a moment. Then she dived head first into the ocean and he caught a hint of her green-blueish scaly tail as she swam away. 

A mermaid! A real mermaid with the most beautiful voice he'd ever heard. He knew that he had to see her again. 

Despite his incredible discovery, he actually slept that day in his crate; filled with peaceful dreams for the first time in his life. He dreamed of swimming in an ocean of blonde curls and hearing nothing but beauty around him. But even his dreams couldn't imitate her voice to perfection. 

As expected the ship hadn't moved, though notes, he found on the bridge the next night informed him that help was coming. They had sent an SOS to ships nearby, claiming that their engines had broken. It was probably better than telling the truth: That there was a saboteur on board. 

He knew that he had to find a more permanent way of staying near the mermaid, but his thoughts halted when he heard her again. 

Her song sounded different this evening; it was like a calling. She would sing a verse, then pause before starting over. He realized that she must be calling him. The fourth time she called him, it was with desperation in her voice. This time he didn't hesitate; he answered her calling with his own, creating his own song from her melody.

Elated, her voice came closer then and soon he saw her in the surface of the dark water by the bow. Without giving the repercussions  a thought, he tied a rope around the railing, with the other end around his waist and under his buttocks, and jumped overboard. He rapelled down the side of the ship until he reached the water surface where he had seen her. But she was gone now. Had she left?

Once again he sang to her, despite the difficulty he had when he was hanging by a rope. But his efforts paid off when she resurfaced right in front of him, taking his breath away so literally that he ceased singing.

She looked at him curiously with huge blue orbs that seemed to burn into his soul and he wondered briefly if she could see how many deaths he had caused. But she smiled at him; a smile brighter than the sun. His chest swelled at the sight and he had to let go from the rope with one hand to ensure that his heart wasn't actually jumping from his body.

She reached for his free hand and with wide eyes he let her take it. She lifted it to her cheek and leaned into his palm, humming as his cold touch met her warm cheek. How could she be so warm in the icy water? When her hand left his, he continued to cradle her face, then moved carefully to reach for her blonde coils. Her hair was wet, yet it felt as soft as dry hair. He marbled at the impossibility of her existence. 

Her own hand lifted to his face and though his first instinct to stop her, he knew that she wanted to feel him as well. He closed his eyes as she touched his mask cautiously. He hoped that she would believe that it was a real part of him and as her hand cradled the leather cheek, he exhaled in relief. For once his face wouldn't be in the way.

He was so relieved, in fact, that he didn't notice the way her fingers quickly found the edge of the mask and when he grasped her wrist, it was too late.

Her breath (because she did breath, like him) hitched and whatever anger, that had flared to life, died out immediately. He opened his eyes in resignation, expecting to see her eyes filled with fear, but instead he saw her smile. 

She put the mask on for a moment and a heavenly laugh left her mouth. Then she threw it into the sea and took his face between her hands. Staring into his eyes, he saw something in her that he had never hoped to see: Acceptance.

How ironic that the first person to accept him couldn't even live on land.

But her laugh was infectious and soon he was laughing with her, hearing an unknown sound of happiness leave his mouth. Their voices rose in song; in perfect tune, despite not knowing what the other would sing, and it was glorious. He saw the same elation, he felt, in her eyes.

The rope burned into his thin pants under his bottom, the cold ocean water splashed against him and his mask was floating away, but none of it mattered, expect for her.

All too soon the first rays of the dun painted the East red and orange. Her eyes and her song turned sorrowful; as did his own. He didn't know why, but she had to leave as well.

Was she hiding from the rest of mankind?  Was she alone? Perhaps they weren't so different. If only he could follow her into the deep ocean. 

They stared in silence at each other before she dived down, leaving him in his loneliness once more. He knew that he should hurry inside before the sailors woke up, especially with his mask gone. He would be recognized and thrown overboard or worse: Brought back to Persia. 

Suddenly the waves before him broke and the female appeared again. She pulled him closer to her and placed her lips upon his. He gasped as warm lips willingly offered him the first kiss he had ever received. Tightly gripping her shoulders, he pulled her closer and returned the adoration and - dare he say it? - love that she gave him. 

All too soon she drew away, pointed to the sun and smiled sadly before sinking into the deep again. 

He sat in shock for a few moments until he heard the sounds of sailors on the deck. Begging that they wouldn't notice the rope, he crawled up the side and managed to stay out of sight until he reached the storage room once more. 

That day he didn't even contemplate sleep. He paced the room, aware of the risk of being discovered when outside his crate. But he couldn't sit still. He thought about the implications of falling in love with a mermaid; someone he could never have. He still felt her touch and his body vibrated with the wonder of being accepted; of having his face accepted. Of being kissed! But how could they ever be together?

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed the sounds of another ship nearing them. It wasn't until he heard the steam engines start up again that he realized someone had managed to repair them and that soon he would be far away from his beloved. 

In desperation he looked around for a mean to stop the engines. And he found it: Gunpowder. Barrels of it that they had foolishly stored under the engine room. With a single match he could stop this ship permanently.

Of course it would be stupid to blow it all up, so he swiftly rolled all but one barrel to the other side of the large room. He quickly found his box of matches among his supplies, lit it and dropped it into the remaining barrel.

In his food- and sleep-deprived state of mind he hadn't thought about the storage room's location at the bottom of the ship and when the gunpowder blew up the engine above, it also tore a hole in the ship. In his haste he had doomed everyone on board, including himself.

Water began flooding the room faster than he could exit. His only chance of surviving would be to swim out the hole, hoping that he could swim against the pressure of water emerging. He took a last breath and dived in with a hope of seeing his mermaid again.

 

* * *

 

He regained consciousness in her arms. They were on sandy shore where the air was cold and the sand dark, delivering him a promise that he wasn't anywhere near Persia. The ship's map had located them near Greece when he had rigged the engines.

He saw her tail clearly in the water's edge flapping like a fish out of water. Because she was, at least half of her. He struggled to lift his hand to touch the dark turquoise scales and smiled at the way his touch made her shiver pleasantly. She didn't seem unnerved by his touch like normal people was.

But her smile was sad and he understood why. Her scales were drying; he had felt it. She leaned down to kiss him again and it felt like a kiss goodbye. Tears fell from their eyes and mingled on his thin chest. 

"I will find you," He willed her to understand as she let go of him and crawled into the ocean. "I will!" He yelled desperately as her golden locks disappeared into the waves, leaving his mask floating towards the shore. 

If he had the strength, he would've followed her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm still working on this! Don't worry, it will be finished.

He had, in fact, landed on the shores of Greece. After he'd coughed up more water and accepted that his mermaid wouldn't be back, he'd counted it lucky that she'd left his mask. He'd donned it and tracked to the closest farmhouse where he'd stolen some proper clothes, enough food to regain his strength and a little money to get started. Then he'd continued inland until he reached Athens. From there he had sent word to Paris where his funds had been moved to. He needed them here instead.

He was aware that the transfer of his funds would be traceable for the man who had helped him set it up in Paris in the first place; it would be a matter of time before the Daroga would know that Erik hadn't perished when the ship sank. He only hoped the police chief would be too busy in Persia to go search for the assassin he'd helped flee. 

It wasn't like Erik was planning to continue what had happened in the rosy hours of Mazenderan. He had found a true purpose in life now. 

It was only a week after he'd last seen the mermaid when he bought an abandoned farm house near the place his mermaid had brought him to shore. The house itself was in dire need of restoration, but the stable's structure was sound and he only needed to repair the roof and remove the stalls. 

He spent his days working, driven by the thought of her. In the evenings he would go down to the shore and sing in hope that she would come back to him, but she didn't. All he could do was hope that he could still find her where he'd first heard her. 

Digging the hole in the stable proved to be the most difficult task and he ended up employing a local boy, Romei, to save time. Together they managed to dig a hole that was 100 meters long, 30 meters wide and 5 meters deep. It had to do because he didn't have the room to make it bigger and making it deeper was close to impossible after they encountered clay at the bottom.

Romei was clearly curious about the hole's purpose, but never asked directly and dutifully left when they had finished digging. 

Erik covered the bottom of the hole with concrete, as well as the walls. Then he called for Romei again to help him heave sand from the shore to the stable. Romei also aided him in buying a small sailboat for a reasonable price. The locals were understandably wary of the masked stranger who was working on something in the old farm house, but to Romei's credit the boy never told a soul about their work. 

Pumping water from the sea to the stable was amazingly the easiest task of all. During the lonely evenings by the shore, he had plenty of time to plan the development of a pumping system that would not only fill the hole with water directly from the sea, but would also allow him to replace the water regularly. Procuring the pipes for it was easy with the help of Romei and soon Erik had pumped enough water to fill the pool.

Lastly, he fished for various kinds of seaweed, clams and small fish. He didn't know what the mermaid ate, but at least he could come up with a few possibilities. 

He hadn't succeeded in finding any literature that could be deemed truthful in regards to mermaids. He's been forced to learn Greek when settling down in the country and at the same time he'd learned their alphabet, so he could study local literature on the matter. But none of it gave him details on how they lived or what they ate. 

He did, however, learn much about sirens which were well known in ancient Greece; some locals still believed in them. They would lure sailors into shallow water with their song and watch as the ships sunk. Erik began to wonder if the mermaid truly had been a siren. After all, she had enchanted him with her song and caused him to sabotage the ship's engine. It was also because of her that he'd been inclined to risk his life (as well as everyone else's on board) and had blown up the ship. While it had been his own decisions, they had been taken because of her. 

But he could not believe that a creature so beautiful and so sad as her could be maleficent. He felt a connection with her, a loneliness so profound, that he was sure she was innocent in all of it. It was he who had the darkness in him, not her.

He often had moments where he was certain it had all been a cruel dream, mostly because she’d seen his face and smiled as though it hadn’t mattered. Even if she was of a different species, mermaids’ upper bodies - including their faces - clearly resembled humans whereas his absolutely did not. It couldn’t have been real; it was his mind’s cruel way of torturing him. And yet, each night he heard her voice and felt her touches as clear as the nights he’d seen her. These nights were the only reason he kept going. 

* * *

One day, approximately three months after she'd saved him from drowning, it was at last time to sail out to the coordinates where he'd met her for the first time; where he would call out for her with his song until he found her.

Despite his wish to do it alone and not let anyone else see her, he had to admit that it would be beneficial to have another person on board. Therefore, he asked Romei to join him and the boy was more than willing. Erik suspected he was bored in the little town where he'd grown up. The boy wished for adventure and though he didn't understand what Erik was doing, he didn't dare to ask questions; this made him perfect for the mission.

They set off at dawn, a steady breeze carrying the small sailboat the direction they needed to go and in only 16 hours they reached the place where he'd first heard her. It was almost midnight and Romei had retired to his hammock a few hours before. Erik was satisfied with this as it might ensure that the boy wouldn't catch a glimpse of the mermaid. Furthermore, it would allow Erik to sleep during the day while Romei kept eye out for any dangers; these waters didn't usually carry pirate vessels, but one could never be too sure.

With as much assurance as possible that they had reached the right place according to his calculations, he anchored the boat and began to sing. It didn't matter what he sang, just the feelings he portrayed; he sang of the loneliness she'd expressed - that he knew so well - of the joy of meeting a kindred spirit and of the longing to see her once more.

His song continued into the break of dawn. He'd promised himself not to be disappointed if she didn't show up the first week, but it was impossible to avoid; somehow, he'd imagined that she would come to him the very first night. Had she not longed for him as he had for her? Was she just a siren, attempting to lure anyone into the depths?

No, she had saved him from that fate. He had to trust his instincts; they had always kept him alive at least.

Romei was quick to access Erik's mood in the morning and only nodded with apprehension and respect as Erik fled down to his cabin. The large wooden bathtub he'd built for her stood across from his bed and seemed to mock him as he attempted to rest his eyes. He would find her and bring her home!

The next five nights were spent in a similar fashion: Erik would sing for her until the sun rose, sometimes almost screaming in his desperation to have her hear him. He didn't sleep much during the day, too worked up by the feeling of being so close to her, yet far away. His vision blurred at times and though he tried to convince himself that it was caused by the lack of sleep, he knew deep down it was tears that threatened to spill.

Nearly a week passed and the way Romei eyed him every time they crossed each other's paths, it was obvious that the boy had figured he'd gone insane. However, he couldn't sail the boat home without Erik; he had to trust the maddened masked man. 

Erik was also beginning to wonder if he'd finally lost his mind. Perhaps it had all been a dream; he was probably still on the cargo ship from Persia, or worse, still in Persia in a haze of opium and imagining all sorts of things. These thoughts haunted him every time another dawn broke without hearing her sing once more.

On the seventh night the dream returned: the sun had barely set and he hadn't even started to sing when he heard it: the captivating voice so ethereal that it defied all natural laws. He searched the sea for any sign of her, but he couldn't see her, and though he heard her clearly, he wasn't convinced yet that it wasn't a hallucination. But he answered her song with his own; she responded, her melody growing bolder and more joyful.

Then he saw her: she was in the water at starboard, the last of the sun's dying rays casting a light on her pale face and golden hair. Without hesitation, he grabbed a loose rope, tied it to the mast and jumped into the sea. As he dove beneath the waves, into the dark waters, he saw her follow him; her smiling eyes greeted him underwater and he was reluctant to swim upwards to reach the surface in fear that she would disappear. But even he needed to breathe.

He gasped for air as he resurfaced, but he was prepared to dive down again immediately after her. It proved to be unnecessary because she'd followed him; suddenly, she was there beside him, looking more beautiful than he could ever have imagined her.

It wasn’t until he touched her wet, yet impossibly soft curls that he finally believed that he had found her. The smile in her eyes spread to the rest of her features and he felt his heart swell. This was love, unlike any other, and he would make sure he’d never lose it.  

With that in mind he circled her with the rope, swiftly binding her arms tightly to her body. She screamed, naturally, but he hushed her and comforted her, more with the tone in his voice than his actual words which she didn't understand. Still, she struggled, but he was stronger and faster. In mere moments he had her properly secured. He climbed up the side of the boat, then pulled her up from the sea by the rope. 

The fear in her eyes were plain, though her screams died out. He kissed her forehead as he lifted her bridal style down to his cabin where the bathtub waited for her; he'd made sure to fill it with fresh water every day. Gently, he sank her into the water, satisfied that the tub fit her perfectly; her tail had room to move around and she could stay under water at all times if she wished or needed to.

She began to scream again and to avoid that Romei would come running, Erik had to gag her. He hated to see the panic and horror in her eyes as he stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth, but it couldn't be helped.

They belonged together.


End file.
